Change Your Image
pdkm_
Reviews
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
if Gilliam's commercial film is not as good as it should be - Blame the Brothers Weinstein
As a Monty Python fan, I enjoy following the members careers post-Python. While Idle and Cleese moved to the US to further their comedy acting careers, Palin went around the world for the BBC, Jones became a TV historian and Chapman went to meet the head of Light Entertainment in the Sky. Gilliam on the other hand, turned to directing.
His films, though quite different, have always been identifiable as a 'Gilliam' film. Recently, however, he has run into a bit of problem. His dream project (Don Quixote) was cut down in it's prime, so we had to wait 7 years for another Gilliam film. Though this film was shot and practically finished 18 months ago, The Weinstein Brothers' interference has been far too much. They veto'd Samantha Morton for the role of Angelica, they veto'd his wish for Matt Damon to wear a prosthetic nose, all leading to post-production being shut down for a year.
Personally, I've been waiting about 3 years for this film to come out. Some of the problems I had with are that, understandably, Gilliam doesn't dare to be himself on someone else's script. The script itself is questionable at times (Peter Stormare's character is utterly annoying), but don't forget that this was written by the man who wrote Scream 3 and, perhaps one of the worst films, The Ring (The US version).
Other problems is that Gilliams use of CGI is amateur at best and that's because Terry Gilliam is NOT supposed to use CGI! This man is a cinematic legend, but he should never use CGI - it takes away the creativity and resourcefulness he found while making the Alien Ship scene in Life Of Brian.
However, despite the problems I had I found The Brothers Grimm a highly entertaining experience (although slightly ruined by a group of 20 Welsh adolescents constantly making noise and running about... Bastards). This was your commercial film, Terry, so hopefully you'll go back and make a proper 'Gilliam' film, the one that i've been waiting for 7 years
Will & Grace (1998)
A-List cameo-heavy unfunny crap
This show is just not funny. Karen has an unnecessarily high voice which makes for annoying viewing. Whoever plays Grace is such a wooden actress, she is not funny in the slightest. If someone else played her role it might even provide some humour. Will is just the same, a character that provides no comedy in a show which is referred to as a "sitcom". The other guy, i think his name is Jack, does have some funny bits but on the whole it is so badly acted that you can tell that it is scripted. Other shows are very well acted so you don't notice, especially Frasier. Frasier pulls it of so well, such clever comedy being acted by superb actors. Will and Grace is just filled with third-rate no-marks who can't act.
The other thing about Will and Grace is that the producers seem to know that it isn't funny, so they fill it with a bunch of A-list stars as cameos to draw in an audience. I feel sorry for John Cleese to have been associated with this rubbish.
What an immoral way to inflict bad television on the worldwide public simply to make money.
Green Screen Show (2004)
Sucks
I've seen the first episode of this and to quite honest, I don't like it. Drew Carey is, as ever, consistently unfunny and barely manages to raise a smile. The animation is good but does not interact with the action very well. The performers are OK, Colin is always funny but his Whose Line? partner Ryan Stiles is missing, probably because he doesn't want to be associated with poor TV. The American audience scream when they find something funny, which is still very annoying and half the reason the US version of Whose Line? was not as good as the original.
The point of Whose Line? was that it was imporvised, they didn't have artists taking the recorded footage away and thinking about something funny to go with it.
My suggestion: go back to Whose Line?, get rid of Carey and have a regular guest pattern.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1998)
Bring back Clive!
This show was much much better when Clive Anderson was presenting it. I'm just not a big fan of Drew Carey. The bloke is funny sometimes, but he does not even match up to Clive and the other performers.
Despite this, the show is still funny! Colin and Ryan have a fantastic partnership where they are hilarious together, but just as funny apart. Regular performers like Wayne Brady and Greg Proops are very funny but there seems to be an absence of British performers, who were superb in the British version.
In my opinion, the only way to make this even funnier would be to bring back Clive Anderson. Drew is just not funny. Get rid of him! In fact, just bring the whole show back to England, where it belongs. Thats the only way to improve this show
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
A poor adaptation
This is a really poor adaptation of the book. Chris Columbus should go back to the Home Alone series.
As a fan of the book, i cant believe how much he took out! This film is an absolute mess! Too many things are missed out. Fair enough, he's got to turn a whole book into a movie, which is hard. He completely changed some things! Like, for example, Harry and Hermione have detention in the forest because they are caught coming down from the tower after getting rid of Norbert (Ron isnt there). Malfoy and Neville also are caught out of bed and thats why they end up in the forest. Ron was not involved. He also took out important stuff from the book and STILL reffered to it later on in the film! He didnt really explain the Philospher's Stone enough either.
This is a very poor adaptation for a poor director who let too much influence from Hollywood spoil what could have been a really 'magical' film. I only hope the Prisoner of Azkaban lives up to my expectations, and with Alfonzo Caurón on top of things, i think it will.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Boring, not for non-Americans or those who simply don't care for pointless gameshows. Still good directing though!
On the whole, I kept finding myself looking at my watch to see when this would be over. I'd dragged my family along to see it, and ended up apologising to them halfway through the film.
The film just dragged on for far too long. However crap the film was, I can't see many faults in Clooney's first directorial effort. He used some clever shots, and was not afraid to use different methods (i.e the shot where he is talking to the TV executive on the phone). Instead of using the conventional split shot he mixed them together to keep both actors on the same set on the screen.
Except for some innovative direction, the film failed to keep my interest and just left me and my family quite bored. By the end i couldn't give a toss.
Billy Elliot (2000)
Could have been a lot better
I quite liked Billy Elliot. It had comedy, drama and elements of the truth which all British films SHOULD have. Set around the miners strike a young boy discovers he prefers ballet dancing to boxing. So he takes up lessons, well against his fathers and brother Tony's feelngs. It showed the crisis of the stike well, but i felt it had something missing. Compared to other British films (such as in recent years, The Full Monty, Brassed Off and When Saturday Comes), Billy Elliot seems to be missing an important element that gives the characters a sympathetic feeling that we saw in the the others. All of them are set around the mining community in the north, and they all show the terrible consequences of working in the mines. In the Full Monty, they are all out of work. In Brassed Off, the mine is about to be closed down, and in When Saturday Comes, the pit collapses. In this film, they are on strike. I'm afraid Billy Elliot did not make me feel as much for the characters as the others did.
Fawlty Towers (1975)
Excellent. The Greatest Situation Comedy Of All Time
This is an excellent program. British comedy at its finest. John Cleese is an absolute genius. He is amongst the funniest actors ever. Coming from Monty Python which ran from 1969 to 1974, he and wife, Connie Booth (Polly) wrote this fantastic comedy series in 1975 (six episodes) and again after their divorce in 1979(another six episodes). They delivered perhaps some of the funniest scenes in British television.
But some people just don't get it. The guy on the front page who referred to it as the best British comedy since Mr Bean simply does not get the genius of Fawlty Towers. Maybe it's just Americans who don't get the British humour. Their TV just seems to be a market for advertisers and nothing to do with entertainment. Comedy there is just a copy of a copy of a copy with canned laughter added in. Unlike here. In England we take care with our TV. To compare Mr Bean with Fawlty Towers is just an absolute insult to (SIR) John Cleese, and just makes people think you are stupid.
My personal favourite episode was the Germans - Basil's Nazi walk was hilarious! With that episode there was just a whole 30 mins of non-stop laughter. The rest were just as good and although it's a shame there were not more episodes to entertain me i'm happy they stopped at 2 series because they would have exhausted a great talent and made the comedy worthless. By the way, to the user who asked why there was a four year pause, Cleese and Booth were going through a divorce at the time and were unsure if they were going to continue writing another series, let alone appear in it.
Thank you John Cleese and Connie Booth for providing us with an outstanding comedy that shall live certainly in my memory forever.
Mr. Bean (1990)
Mr Bean is ok
Mr Bean is quite a funny show. Rowan Atkinson shows his comedic talent already seen in Blackadder. He is just hilarious in Mr Bean. But to say that this is better tham Monty Python or Fawlty Towers is rediculos! Nothing will ever surpass the unforgettable sketches in Flying Circus or John Cleese's memorable moments as Basil Fawlty. Nothing. Mr Bean isn't even as funny as some of the sit-coms Britain has seen. The Young Ones, The Vicar of Dibley, Black Adder, The Thin Blue Line, Only Fools And Horses, Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf. The list is endless. But maybe those shows haven't been exported. So for foreign viewers to adore this so much, what the hell must their TV be like?
While it was funny at the start it got a tad boring towards the end and then the film came out. Which was crap. It just lives as an example of how American producers come in taking the rights to British TV shows and making very very bad copies. For example, the Red Dwarf copy failed after two pilots and the Men Behaving Badly American version was cancelled after a series. As well the Bean film spin-off, which was nothing less than Mr Bean repeating his TV antics in America. Bored ensues... They do it to everything! When will they learn??
Primal Fear (1996)
Superb
This is a sadly underrated film. Richard Gere puts in a strong performance in one of his favourite roles - as a lawyer. He comes across a case about a young man denying that he killed his priest despite all the evidence pointing to him. When it transpires that the accused (Aaron played by Edward Norton) has a split personality who claims to be the murderer (Roy, also Norton) it is too late to bring it into court.
The film is thrilling right up to the end and the final twist, while expected, did not disappoint. Edward Norton was simply superb as Aaron/Roy. He put in a very powerful performance as Aaron/Roy and did not let down on his first film. He has a greatly versatile acting ability and has shown this in many of his films up to date.
On the whole, Primal Fear was an excellent film, with wonderful performances from Richard Gere and especially Edward Norton.
The Planet's Funniest Animals (1999)
APPALLING
Please stop ITV from putting this crap on. Its just shocking. They put it on on a Saturday morning when theres nothing to watch. It is typical of American TV - all canned laughter rubbish. The host is appalling and the videos barely raise a smile. Someone needs to be punished for letting this show be screened!
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Excellent.
This is my personal favourite film of the year. It is simply excellent British film-making.
There is subtle British humour (which, lets face it, the Americans just don't get) and a good British cast which many people would recognise from television. Neil Marshall's direction is fantastic and the writing even better. There have been many films about werewolf encounters, and Dog Soldiers plays on that perfectly. Great performances came from Spoon (Darren Morfitt) and Wells (Sean Pertwee).
Dog Soldiers deserves a lot of praise for being funny, scary and very entertaining.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Good, but not the best
Saving Private Ryan was a very good war film, but not a scratch on the Great Escape. The film follows the story of Private James Francis Ryan, whose brothers have been killed during the war. We follow Captain John Miller and his team accross France looking for Ryan, who is to be returned home. Throughout the movie thee are many refernces the Easy Company and th 101st Airborn, on which Band of Brothers mini series was based.
I really enjoyed this film, mainly because of the action involved but mostly because of the strong cast. Tom Hanks' performance was superb.
The Great Escape was definately the best war film I've ever seen, and is so much better than Ryan because of its superior cast, script and action. The first 15 mins of Ryan is extremely gory, which will entertain some people. Band Of Brothers is just as good as Saving Private Ryan, and there are countless similarities between the two.
Overall, Saving Private Ryan was a very good film by Steven Spielberg, with excellent performances from the likes of Tom Hanks, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg and Matt Damon. However, this does not make it the greatest war film ever made. For that, I believe, you should look at The Great Escape.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1998)
Bring back Clive!
This show was much much better when Clive Anderson was presenting it. I'm just not a big fan of Drew Carey. The bloke is funny sometimes, but he does not even match up to Clive and the other performers.
Despite this, the show is still funny! Colin and Ryan have a fantastic partnership where they are hilarious together, but just as funny apart. Regular performers like Wayne Brady and Greg Proops are very funny but there seems to be an absence of British performers, who were superb in the British version.
In my opinion, the only way to make this even funnier would be to bring back Clive Anderson. Drew is just not funny. Get rid of him! In fact, just bring the whole show back to England, where it belongs. Thats the only way to improve this show
The Waterboy (1998)
don't bother watching this if you're not American
Ive just sat and watched this tonight, and wasn't really impressed. Most of the humour is based around old jokes about people with special needs. I can't understand why people find that so mind numbingly funny. I like Adam Sandler, and I loved The Wedding Singer, but i can't be bothered with this movie. I don't think this film should have been released outside America. Why? Because no other country on the planet actually plays American Football! I sat there looking around the room and everyone had the same expression on their face. What the hell was going on? one minute they seemed to be starting the game, the next someone knocked out someone else and the game was over! I mean, it's not exactly what you'd call sport, people just running about flying jumping through the air knocking people out is it?? And why did every person in the stadium seem to be supporting the same team? The team who had lost so many games in a row? To be honest, i just don't care.
The Waterboy had a weak plot, weak characters, unfunny humour, bad acting and rubbish dialogue. If youi want to see a proper sports movie, go and rent 'Fever Pitch' or 'When Saturday Comes', cos the British know how to do it best! 2/10
Scream 3 (2000)
very good
Could be better. Without Kevin Williamson the second sequel of this hugely entertaining horror series suffered greatly. Not even the fantastic cast could save this movie. The acting is at some times poor, as is the action. Being a horror movie you'd expect the death scenes to be a lot more gory. Come on Wes, sort it out! Hopefully this is the last of the Scream movies. Making a fourth, fifth or sixth will only ruin the memory of the first two films and become predictable boring yarn. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AS THE FREDDY AND JASON FILMS!
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)
Soley responisble for changing the face of the 20th Century accross the world....
THIS programme is still funny after 30 years! Consisting of John Cleese(The tall one), Eric Idle(The one that sings), Graham Chapman(the deceased one), Michael Palin(the travelling one), Terry Jones(Mr Creosote...) and Terry Gilliam(the American one), Monty Python is responsible for the evolution of comedy since the 1970's. Without Python, you'd not have stuff like Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Only Fools And Horses, Cheers, Friends etc. It also propelled its writers and performers' to international fame and fortune. The likes of John Cleese and Michael Palin are still acting regularly today. Eric Idle(writing books), Terry Jones(rarely acting nowadays) have also succeeded in other ways. Terry Gilliam(the American) is still directing movies. He directed the controversial 'Brazil' and the excellent 'The Fisher King' and 'Twelve Monkeys' including actors like Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Robin Williams. Gilliam was Python's artist. His animation's are often complete nonsense, but still enormously funny. Sadly, Graham Chapman passed away the day before Python's 20th anniversary, at the age of 48. During the early years of Monty Python, Chapman had a drinking problem caused by stage freight. It is believed that this is what eventually killed him, as it caused damage to his liver and then he got cancer in the throat and spine, confining him to a wheelchair.
Python's sketches are legendary. to name a few: The Parrot Sketch, The Cheeseshop sketch, Spam sketch, Lumberjack sketch, Fish-Slapping dance, Fish License sketch, and the Gumby sketches....
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin are absolute legends!!